Estranged
by Ol'DannyBoy
Summary: AU, No Gods. They used to know each other. They were best friends when they were younger. Now they're strangers once again. Percy is a normal guy at a regular high school who plays baseball for fun. Annabeth is a self-proclaimed nerd in a top tier high school. When chance sparks their friendship again the only thing stopping them from falling in love is their past and themselves.
1. Chance

**This story draws inspiration on the estranged relationship Jason and Reyna have in the book.**

**Just to reiterate myself, this story will have no one antagonized. There is no "bad guy" stopping them from getting together, only themselves. This will mostly be told from Percy's perspective in third person. There won't be that many characters and all of them will have the characteristics they had in the book. Although there may be some slight situational differences due to the difference in back story of the characters.**

**There are no gods in the story and everyone's step-parents will be their biological one is this AU. There are also some slight changes to everyone's back story like I said before to help with the plot**

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**Chapter I: Chance**

Percy used to know Annabeth Chase, they had been friends when they were younger. To Percy they were best friends even though they only met once a month. It was always the highlight of the week for a nine year old boy to go over to his best friend's house for a whole day to play games and watch TV.

Everything ended when Percy's parents got divorced. Percy didn't want his friendship with Annabeth to end. It just seemed to come to a complete halt when his parents split up. Percy was preoccupied with his family, everyone was preoccupied with his family. Annabeth suddenly seemed to be a secondary concern.

Now it's been seven years since that and Percy's life has gone relatively back to normal. He was now living with his mom, Sally in a small but comfortable two bed room apartment in Manhattan. His father, Paul Blofis was nearby living less than five blocks away. Why his parents got divorced was a mystery to him. All he knew was that his father did it for their own good.

Percy went to Goode High School, it was one of the better schools in the city but it was nowhere near to the top schools. Even though it wasn't prestigious to graduate from his high school Percy was completely fine with it. They were taking the same exam in the end anyway.

Annabeth on the other hand seemed to be much better off. Her family was still together and they were living in Elmont, New York in a sizable house. She had managed to enrol into the top tier Madison High School. She remembered Percy fondly but she never chose to do anything about it since she was always busy, she just accepted it as something that had passed. Although all of this was unknown to Percy.

Under normal circumstances the two would never meet. Percy lived in city while Annabeth stayed in the suburbs. Annabeth went to one of the top schools in the Tri-state area while Percy went to a regular, run of the mill school. As things would have it they met again anyway completely by chance.

Percy didn't know why his mom insisted on using this dry cleaner all the way out in Elmont. There were plenty of dry cleaners just as good in the city and he bet there were loads of them across the Lincoln Tunnel. So Percy had to make the arduous forty five minute journey taking two trains and a bus just to get two of his moms dress washed.

'Why does she make me do this?' Percy mumbled to himself as he alighted from the bus carrying a bag full of clothing.

He started to walk towards the small group of stores that the dry cleaner was located at. How his mom had found out about an obscure dry cleaner was a mystery to him. She did always read too many online reviews about the best places in town.

Percy walked with a noticeable slump with his eyes glazed over day dreaming about being on holiday. Summer had just ended and he had just started a new term in school. Like every student he wasn't thrilled about have to wake up early to go to school again. Now after ending his first week at school he had to go across town to run an errand. Percy loved his mom and knew it was hard for her to be a single parent but sometimes the things she got him to do were just ridiculous.

Unknowingly while he was walking in slammed right into another person. The shock jolted him out of his stupor and caused him to fling his bag forward in the process.

'I'm sorry.' Percy said alarmed as he snapped out of his day dream.

'No honey, I'm sorry.' A woman said as she picked up her shopping. Two girls were following her that looked younger than Percy but not by much.

Before Percy could pick his bag and continue the woman called after him. 'Hold on!'

Percy's head snapped back in surprise. She seemed like a nice lady, Percy had assumed a simply sorry was adequate.

'I know you, you're Percy. Percy Jackson.' The lady replied with a smile on her face. Her two daughters looked just as confused as Percy was.

Percy was scared to answer. He didn't know if he was supposed to know this lady. Being dyslexic he sometimes forgot people's names and faces, even some members of his family he didn't see often. He wasn't scared of the lady at all. He was a head taller than her and she had two children, the last thing that was going to happen was violence. He was scared of making a fool out of himself.

'Urm…' Percy said as he debated what to say in his mind.

'Oh you probably don't remember me. I'm Mrs Chase. Annabeth's mother.' Percy said smiling as she moved close to talk with him.

'Mrs Chase?' Percy said stunned. He hadn't heard anything from the chase family for seven years. She used to be friends with his mom until the divorce. Percy guessed that after his parent had split up his mother also lost contact with some of her friends.

'Yes! I haven't seen you in seven years! You've gotten a lot bigger.' She exclaimed. Percy could tell her children were just as clueless as to what was going on as well.'

'What's happened to you? Which high school did you go to?' Mrs Chase continued to ask bombarding Percy with questions.

'It's nice to see you again Mrs Chase but I really need to drop off my mother's dresses for dry cleaning.' Percy replied as he picked up his bag.

'I understand dear. I hope I'll see you soon.' She said somewhat disappointed. Percy guessed she wanted to know how he was doing as compared to Annabeth. They used to be best friends after all.

'It's not like that Mrs Chase.' Percy replied. Percy hoped that she didn't think he was trying to escape a long conversation. 'I can talk to you after I drop this off, it will only take a minute.'

'Can I meet you in the café?' Percy continued.

'Sure Percy. I owe these two ice cream anyway.' Mrs Chase said smiling.

Percy went into the dry cleaner to quickly drop off the dresses before leaving to go to the café. Percy remembered that Annabeth had two sisters, Natalie was seven when they were still friends and the youngest Samantha was five at the time. Everything was all hazy since the divorce was the most significant event of the time and it over shadowed all other memories he had.

Percy entered the café and took a seat a Mrs Chase's table. The two girls were off playing a remake of Space Invaders at the arcade machine and looked pretty content.

'So Percy, how have you been?' Mrs Chase asked. Percy had always liked her and treated her like an aunt when he was younger.

'I've been good, school hasn't been too great though,' Percy replied.

Percy, well, wasn't exactly popular. He wasn't labelled a dork or a loser either. He was just sort of invisible outside his regular group of friends. Percy and his friends did play on the baseball team, but since their school wasn't one of the top it was mostly for recreation since they only played one competition a year.

'What school did you go to?' Mrs Chase asked.

'I went to Goode High. My father used to teach there before he moved up to teach college so I thought I go there.' Percy said.

'Oh! Annabeth went to Madison High.' Mrs Chase replied.

Percy suddenly felt slightly ashamed. Annabeth had made it into one of the top 10 schools in the region while he was just in an everyman's school. He remembered that Annabeth was smart, be he didn't think she'd be so brilliant.

'What she doing there? Sports? Drama?' Percy asked. He was now curious about what Annabeth was doing.

'She's in the art club and the infocom club.' Mrs Chase replied.

'Infocom?' Percy asked. Goode had nothing like that.

'It's basically the computer club Percy.' Mrs Chase replied. Annabeth now struck Percy as a nerd. Goode barely had a functioning computer lab with most of the computers in there broken down or old and barely working.

'What's her GPA?' Percy asked. His GPA was not very impressive at slightly under three points.

'She's at 3.7 the last time she told me.' Mrs Chase replied.

Percy was impressed, she was definitely an honours student. But Percy bet that she was a complete nerd has well.

'Percy are you still suffering from your dyslexia?' Mrs Chased asked. Percy remembered that Annabeth also had dyslexia and ADHD.

'It's not as bad as before, I can read fine but my spelling is still slightly messed up.' Percy continued.

'Mom! Can we go now?' One of the girls interrupted. Apparently they had run out of quarters.

'Okay Nat, in a minute.' She replied before turning back to Percy.

'It's okay Percy, don't be too impressed.' Mrs Chase said. Apparently she knew what Percy was thinking.

'Annabeth is also quite awkward sometimes. She not popular either, but being popular isn't important.' Mrs Chase continued as Percy nodded his head. She always was nice to Percy, she didn't want him to feel intimidated or any worse that her daughter.

'Wait, if Nat and Sam both go to school, where is Annabeth?' Percy asked. By now every school for have finished for the day. Annabeth should be here with her sisters.

'She's still at school finishing an art piece.' She replied.

'Mom! We want to catch the show.' The girls interjected again.

'Okay, we're leaving.' Mrs Chase said as she got up. 'They're a little impatient sometimes, but I can't blame them. Their fourteen and Twelve.'

'Percy can you pass me your mothers number. It's time we get in touch.' Mrs Chase said as she held out her notebook.

'Tell Annabeth I said hi.' Percy replied as he uncapped his lucky pen.

Percy quickly scribbled down the digits before Mrs Chase hurried off with her shopping. Percy wondered how Mr Chase was doing. He couldn't remember what he did for a living but he knew that he earned a lot.

The whole trip back took an hour and a half since he got caught in rush hours and couldn't board three trains. The whole time he thought about Annabeth. His memory of her was hazy despite him having fond memories of her. Did she still have her golden hair? Percy wonder if she had finally grown a little taller. Finally Percy thought back to her grey stormy eyes. They used to scare him when he was younger but over time he realized how beautiful there were.

Percy only got home well after seven o'clock and he was starving for dinner. He was thankful that tomorrow was Saturday.

'Mom! I'm home.' Percy said as he entered the apartment. 'What's for dinner?'

'Spaghetti, it's on the table.' She called back.

Percy sat down his ate his food in silence. He was slowly trying to recover all the memories he had of Annabeth. Most of which were mired in a mix of memories of the divorce.

'Percy,' Sally called out from her room. 'I got a call from Mrs Chase earlier today. I am meeting her for lunch tomorrow. Do you want to come?"

'I've got baseball tomorrow.' Percy replied his mouth half full with bolognaise sauce and half a meat ball.

'It's later in the afternoon at three.' His mom replied.

'Is Annabeth going?' Percy asked. He already had quite a chat with Mrs Chase today, unless Annabeth was going Percy felt there wasn't much of a point showing up again.

'She said that Annabeth has to finish a project. It's only going to be Mrs Chase.' Sally replied. Percy was amazed at that. It had only been one week since school started but Madison High had already given out lots of work. He guessed that's what set a top school apart of a regular one like Goode.

'No thanks, I think I'd rather rest at home.' Percy replied as he finished up his food and brought it to the sink.

Percy head to his room to lie down. He still felt grimy from the overly packed train he was in on his way back but he was too lazy to get up a bathe just yet.

'Percy?' His mother asked as she opened the door. 'I got a message from Mrs Chase, Annabeth wants your email address.'

Percy's heart skipped a beat before he answered 'Email? Why not my phone number or Facebook or something?' Percy was curious why she wanted his Email. He barely used his email. For that matter he was sure that his friends only used their email for the occasional school project and to sign up for stuff online.

'How would I know?' Sally asked.

'Maybe Mrs Chase told you?' Percy replied straight back.

'Just write it down.' Sally said. Percy wondered if he asked too many questions sometimes.

Percy scribbled down his address before lying back down on his bed. He felt weirdly excited even though he hadn't met her in seven years. There was this strange air of mystery that made him both eager to meet her again yet scared.

He thought of all the possibilities that could happen. Would she be angry that their friendship had come to a sudden end? Would she be as conflicted as him about talking to her? Would she even remember him? As the thoughts raced through Percy's mind he heard a ping from his laptop.

Percy jolted up and hopped out of his bed into his desk chair before swivelling to face his desk. Percy switched tabs to his email and searched for Annabeth's message among all the unopened spam that had cluttered his inbox over the months of disuse.

Finally he stumbled upon a message from 'WiseGirl'. Percy quickly opened it expecting a whole paragraph from Annabeth based on what her mother had told him about her intellect. All it read was just a simple 'Hi'.

Percy replied quickly before he could think and simply sent her a 'Hi' back.

Another ping came out from the computer and Percy quickly scrolled down to read the new message.

'It's been a while.' It wrote plainly.

'Yeah it has.' Percy wrote in replied.

'Why the name "SeaweedBrain"?' Annabeth wrote back asking.

'Long story…' Percy wrote down as he hesitated before sending. Annabeth was he friend, although a bit distant. He decided that if he wanted to be real friends again he shouldn't splash around with all the small talk. 'I fell into the Hudson once.' He continued before hitting send.

'What!' Annabeth wrote back. Percy could imagine her voice yelling that out in disbelief. 'I forgot you were pretty funny sometimes.'

'So why "WiseGirl"?' Percy asked in return.

'Nothing like how you got your nickname. I'm a nerd.' Annabeth wrote back very frankly. Percy liked that, she didn't pretend to be someone she wasn't. And she seemed pretty proud of it.

The computer dinged again with Annabeth next message. Before Percy replied he took a minute to think about everything that happened. A dull errand had turned out to be something incredible. Now he was wondering what would happen now.

* * *

**So that's the first chapter. Please tell me what you think since I don't think this story plot has been done a lot. Also this is likely to be a short story of about fifteen chapters. It also may involve occasional time skips of one or two weeks to a month. **


	2. Complication

**So, strong response from those who read it. I thought this kind of story would be much more popular but I guess people are more into the whole high school Glee popular kid kind of thing. So just going to continue and see where it takes me. I hope that this appeals to a certain niche since it's a more realistic story that I feel that may be easier to connect to.**

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**Chapter II: Complication**

Percy spent the whole night emailing with Annabeth. His tired, somewhat grouchy attitude had been replaced by a bright and optimistic one. They started with a simple getting to know you chat. Percy talked about school, which wasn't anything special for him and he talked about baseball. Annabeth didn't seem very interested in his school or sports but at least she seemed interested in him as a person. Annabeth on the other hand had a whole host of topics, she was into graphic design and art, she loved history and literature and she was one of the top in her class.

Percy wasn't a big fan of art, even if she did draw buildings and he barely knew anything about history let alone literature. Even though he wasn't interested in anything he supposed that he should still ask questions about it if he wanted to get her to know better.

'So besides school and sports what else do you do?' Annabeth wrote asking. Percy was worried about that.

Percy's life wasn't exactly special. Now Annabeth seemed intimidating to him since she seemed to be multitalented. The one thing he did have was a whole lot of crazy stories. He hoped that Annabeth wasn't too put off by the insane things he had done.

'Not much…' Percy typed out. He was searching his brain for a way to phrase it. 'I do get into a lot of weird situations.'

'Like falling into the Hudson?' Annabeth wrote out again. This is why Percy hated emails, he could never gauge anyone's tone or mood from it. Not that he was good at it in the first place anyway.

'Yeah…' Percy replied testing her response.

'Well, my life is pretty boring.' Percy could not believe Annabeth's response. She was in most peoples dream school, well-funded with every facility imaginable. He couldn't imagine how she could be living a boring life. 'So what other insane stuff do you do?'

Percy cracked a small grin as he read that. At least she didn't think he was a functioning psychopath. 'Remember the time where the craze about Ninjas and stuff was going around?' Percy asked as he set up the background for one of his stories.

'Nope. There was a ninja craze?' Annabeth replied instantly.

'It was pretty recent.' Percy couldn't believe that she was oblivious to it. There were people dressed up as ninjas in the streets. 'I think it was in 2010.' Percy replied concealing his actual reaction.

'Nope. Nothing. I don't really follow things much.' Annabeth replied plainly.

'What? Then how do you do History and stuff. Don't they have a current events segment?' Percy thought Mrs Chase was right, Annabeth was weird in some ways.

'Yeah, I'm up to date on the important stuff. Not the pointless trends and other what not.' Annabeth wrote back, she clearly wasn't try to hide anything. She appeared to find coming across as boring.

'Well, back to the story.' Percy decided not to probe. 'So everyone was crazy about ninja throwing things and stuff. My friend decided to try it during shop class and cut the back of his own hand while trying to throw an X-Acto Knife at a block of wood.'

There was a long lull before Annabeth finally responded. During the time Percy was fearful that he had just scared her off. It was irrational but it wasn't entirely impossible. If he met a stranger involved in a freak knife throwing accident he would be freaked out too. If he met a stranger like Annabeth he probably wouldn't have bothered trying to start a conversation. But before he even started he felt like he was already emotionally invested in their friendship.

'What… You weren't kidding, that's pretty insane.' Annabeth wrote back finally putting Percy at ease.

'Well that's the only exciting thing about my life. Stupid things I do with my friends.' Percy said hoping to dismiss the possible suspicions that he was insane.

The conversation only ended at two in the morning. Percy wanted it to continue to whole night but he knew he had to get some rest of his baseball the next day. Before it ended he asked Annabeth for her phone number. If it had been another girl he would have been on edge since it conotated that he was looking for a date. With Annabeth it seemed to pass as a friendly question, although Percy himself was slightly tense.

Percy woke up early the next day feeling groggy. He had slept barely five hours before he had to leave. He knew he was going to be wasted for the remainder of the day but he didn't regret any of it. Percy left the house and took a wrong train heading for the baseball Field in New Jersey before he realized that the first practice after the summer was in school.

'Sorry I'm late.' Percy said as he burst into the classroom.

'Where were you?' Malcom asked as Percy sat down.

'Took the wrong train.' Percy sighed. 'Forgot we need to choose a new field.' Their years booking for the baseball field in New Jersey had ended at the start of September and now they needed to find a new place to practice.

'I say we use the ball park in the Bronx.' Grover said deciding to kick off the discussion.

'Too far, we should stick to the one in Weehawken.' Leo interjected, brushing off Grover's suggestion.

'But the price just increased. We can't afford it.' Malcom noted.

'Where's Beckendorf, Solace and the Stoll Twins?' Percy asked. There seemed to be took few of them here.

'Beckendorf had to help his dad at the auto shop. Stolls have detention and Will has a family thing.' Grover replied.

Percy was happy after hearing this, less people meant their decision would be streamlined.

'What about Corona Park?' Percy asked.

'You kidding? That's all the way in Queens.' Grover responded.

'So? It's cheap… well cheaper.' Percy persisted.

'The one in the Bronx is just as Cheap.' Grover said countering.

'But it's the Bronx, I don't want to get robbed.' Leo replied.

'All our trainings end in the afternoon on a Saturday… I don't think muggings happen often in broad daylight.' Grover said.

'Weren't you always the one scared of being mugged?' Nico said quietly from the corner of the class. He had been there quietly observing the whole argument.

'Yeah… But it's near my house.' Grover said finally divulging his ulterior motive.

'Malcom, how much budget to do we have for the year?' Percy asked deciding to settle the argument.

'Urm…' Malcom pondered. 'Well… Let's just say it's not enough.'

'So Weehawken is out of the question, anything in Manhattan is out of the question. So that leaves us with Bronx and Queens. Correct?' Percy said stating everything out.

'Pretty much.' Malcom nodded

'I say Corona Park at Queens. It's a nicer neighbourhood.' Percy replied plainly.

'Well, what choice do we have?' Grover pouted.

'Sorry man. So Corona it is?' Percy said finally ending the argument.

'Wait, what about Brooklyn? There are like three fields there and their so much closer.' Malcom suggested reigniting the argument.

Percy hesitated for a moment. Malcom was right, there was a cheap and closer alternative field in Prospect Park. But he had almost convinced everyone to agree on Corona. He asked himself why he was reluctant to change. Percy realized why he wanted Corona Park, Annabeth lived nearby in Elmont and he was hoping to run into her. Was he really willing to subject the whole club to a year of hassle just to meet a friend? Sadly, he realized that just maybe he was going to do it.'

'No time, we have to finalize it by today.' Percy insisted trying to mask his nervousness.

'But, we haven't looked at all the options yet.' Malcom protested.

'Look Malcom, I'm the Captain and I know the timeline we have. We need to start some practice now for the fall competition. After that we can go back to recreation.' Percy said asserting himself.

'Fine, Fine.' Malcom replied. 'We only have half the budget now so we can only book a field until October.'

'Good man, I knew I'd picked a good treasurer.' Percy said smiling.

The rest of the practice was spent in the small school field practicing some pitching and batting while Malcom finalized the booking. Percy felt bad for what he'd just did. He had just inconvenienced all of his friends just to meet with Annabeth. It scared him, he hadn't seen her in seven years yet he was so intent on meeting her. He just chalked it up to the need for closure or continuation of the friendship he valued so highly when he was younger.

'Grover, can you help me with something?' Percy asked as they sat down at the bleaches.

'Sure thing.' Grover responded before continuing to gulp down his 100plus.

'I need you to spread the message to everyone else. I didn't mean to antagonize Malcom or anything. Just make sure everyone knows.' Percy said in a disappointed tone.

Malcom Faulkner had been his classmate since they were eleven. He may not have been one of Percy's top friends, sometimes annoying him, but he still was a nice guy.

When Percy finally got home he felt even more tired than the day before. He knew his mom was due back in a few minutes and he needed to help her with house cleaning. There was no point in going to take a rest or taking a shower. He would be sweaty and feel even worse when doing chores later. Out of boredom he decided to message Annabeth and strike a conversation. It would give him something interesting to do later during chores.

He left a short message complaining that he shouldn't have slept so late. It seemed redundant and a pointless rant but it was an innocent attempt at making conversation. Percy proceeded to do his chores after his mother got back. Still no reply. Percy and his mother ate dinner. Still no reply. Percy waited for two hours in his room doing nothing. Still no reply. Finally he was getting agitated. Even he replied after at least six hours and he was considered unresponsive.

'Percy, are you free now?' Sally asked from the dining room.

Percy was tempted to say no, but it didn't seem a reply was going to come anytime soon. 'Yeah mom, I'm free.'

Percy sauntered out into the living room and dropped himself into one of the chairs. 'What do you need me to do?"

'Nothing sweetie, I just wanted to talk to you.' Percy's mom said while typing on her laptop.

'About what? Everything is fine.' Percy replied. He asked himself why he was letting Annabeth affect him like that.

'I just had a nice lunch with Mrs Chase.' Sally started. Just like that Percy perked up a bit at the slightest possibility. 'She told me all about Annabeth and what their family had been doing recently.'

For the next half an hour Percy listened intently about every little detail about Annabeth. Percy heard the fleeting mention that Annabeth had problems when she was younger. He heard that she was actually quite athletic, she just didn't like sports as a hobby. Finally he found out that the only reason Mrs Chase recognized him was because of his sea green eyes. Apparently Annabeth had talked about it non-stop when they were friends.

Percy went back to him room feeling a strange mix of emotions. He was disappointed that Annabeth hadn't said anything yet he was happy to have heard something about her. Percy decided to email her in hopes that she would respond. Maybe she just wasn't free earlier in the day, maybe her phone had been out of commission.

* * *

A full week had past and Percy was getting agitated. He wondered if he story really had freaked her out and that she was just being polite. Finally she replied in the middle of dinner a full Saturday later.

'Sorry! I got really busy with school. So what's up now?' The message read. Percy dislike how it seemed so casual, but then again it wasn't like it was anything major. Percy was starting to think he may have a problem judging from his reaction.

'Urm… Sorry for all the spam.' He wrote down. He may have sent five more message over the week out of concern. 'Nothing much, just a little anxious that the talking stopped.'

'That's a little… well weird, but I think it's also kind of sweet.' Annabeth replied. Percy felt relived, he hadn't come off serial killer creepy.

Percy wanted to ask to meet in person but he couldn't come up with a good way to ask. He sat awkwardly in front of his computer for a good five minutes try to decided what he wanted to do.

'Annabeth, I don't think emails are a good way to get to know each other again. Can we meet up sometime?' Percy typed out, after meticulously proof reading it he sent it out satisfied that it didn't seem too creepy.

'Sure, I'll have to ask my dad though. Where do you want to meet?' Annabeth asked. Percy was a little apprehensive about her dad know about it since he bought into the stereotype that all fathers were protective of their 'little girl'. Percy wouldn't blame him, he probably would be doing the same thing in twenty years. He just hoped that Mr Chase was as nice as he remembered.

'Urm… Monday after school? Times Square?' Percy sent suggesting the soonest timing and the first thing that came to his mind.

'Really, Times Square? You're a New Yorker but you suggest the most touristy place to go to?' Annabeth responded in disbelief.

'What… Since you live in Elmont I was thinking you don't come into town that often. Besides, you have a better idea?' Percy sent back defending himself.

'It doesn't seem fair that I need to go all the way to Manhatten to meet you.' Annabeth worte, it seemed like she was pouting slightly to Percy, or at least in his imagination.

'I'll willing to go to Elmont, but is there really anything to do there?' Percy wrote back, he wanted to come across diplomatic.

'Good point, I'll get confirm everything soon. Time square it is.' Annabeth sent back.

* * *

Percy was elated for the next day. But throughout the day he while thinking about what would happen with Annabeth. Surprisingly never once did he stop to think why he was elated in the first place. If he was going to meet Grover on Monday he wouldn't have spared a though about it until right before they were supposed to meet. Yet with Annabeth their meet up was all he could think about.

Percy was excited to meet Annabeth. He waited outside the subway station for here even arriving half an hour early. Percy being a boy eventually got bored and his mind started to wander.

'Hey! Percy!' A female voice called out.

Percy snapped up to see a beautiful blond girl with long flowing hair that cascaded down like liquid gold. Her eyes were still that stormy grey he could never read and she walked with a confident stride.

'How did you recognize me? I didn't tell you what I was wearing.' Percy said in surprise. It turned out he had forgotten that they hadn't seen each other in seven years and had definitely changed. Then again, Percy felt that there was a good part of it. If he had known Annabeth was wearing a sun dress he wouldn't have been as pleasantly surprised as he was now.

'Like I could forget those green eyes.' Annabeth said smiling. 'I always thought they were cute when we were younger.'

Percy didn't want to be associated with cute. But it was better than think he was a maniac. 'Well, I was scared of your eyes for a while. Now I realize how unique they are.' Percy said casually, making Annabeth chuckled.

'I can tell this is going to be fun. Good thing I talked my dad out of asking Malcom to come with us.' Annabeth said.

'Wait? What!' Percy replied instantly now confused. 'Malcom, as in Malcom Faulkner.'

'Yeah, you go to school with him right?' Annabeth asked, now it seemed she was mildly perplexed by his reaction.

'Yeah, he's my treasurer in the baseball club.' Percy replied dumbfounded. 'What does he have to do with anything?'

'I never told you? Well he's my cousin.' Annabeth said thinking she had cleared things up.

Only one thing ran through Percy's mind at that point. _Crap._

* * *

**The plot is starting to develop now. I know Annabeth seem unbelievably civil and slightly stiff but just bear in mind that this is the first time they have met in years. I believe it is human nature to put on a bit of a show when try to give a first impression. Later on the interactions between Percy and Annabeth will get more candid. **

**As for Percy's friends they won't be play too much of a major role. Of course Malcom will cause issues but his intent isn't to spite Percy. Instead he is acting in Annabeth's interest since they are family. Grover of course will be acting as Percy's best friend.**

**I hope you like the story so far. Just a more realistic take on the average romance story. **


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